1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical instrument that generates electronic sound and a light-emission controller used in this musical instrument.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, musical instruments have been proposed that generate electronic sound in response to music playing movements, when music playing movements of a player are detected. For example, a musical instrument (air drum) has been known that generates a percussion instrument sound with only a stick-shaped component, and with this musical instrument, a sensor is provided to the stick-shaped component, the sensor detecting a music playing movement by a player holding the component by hand and waving, and then a percussion instrument sound is generated.
According to such a musical instrument, music notes of this instrument can be generated without requiring a real instrument; therefore, it enables the enjoyment of music playing without being subjected to limitations in the music playing location or music playing space.
In regards to such a musical instrument, an instrument game device is proposed in FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent No. 3599115, for example, that is configured so as to capture an image of a music playing movement of a player using a stick-shaped component, while displaying a composite image combining this music playing movement and a virtual image showing an instrument set on a monitor, and generates a predetermined musical note depending on position information of the stick-shaped component and the virtual instrument set.
However, with the musical instrument capturing an image of a player and generating musical notes, the music-playing component must be identifiable from the captured image. More specifically, the position coordinates of a portion of the music-playing component contacting the virtual instrument must be specified in the captured image.
In this respect, with the instrumental game device described in Japanese Patent No. 3599115, it is configured so that a lamp is provided to a leading end of a penlight used by the player (FIG. 4), and the portion contacting the virtual instrument is distinguished by specifying the position coordinates of this lamp.
As a result, an electrical source for switching on the lamp is required in the music-playing component (penlight). However, in order to realize the aforementioned characteristic of not being subjected to the limitations in the music playing location and music playing space, it is necessary to provide an electrical source inside of the music-playing component that does not supply electrical power by wires, such as a battery. In addition, in view of characteristics of holding and playing by the player, the music-playing component requires a certain curbing of the weight thereof, and thus a simple means of providing a large battery in order to enable use over a long time period is not preferable.
In this regard, with the instrumental game device of Japanese Patent No. 3599115, switch-on control of this lamp is in no way taken into account, and thus a further improvement has been demanded from the viewpoint of a reduction in the electricity consumption of the music-playing component.